Symptomatic giant Schmorl's node treated by a decompression procedure

Abstract

Schmorl's nodes (SN) are common lesions that represent disc material prolapse through the vertebral endplate, into the vertebral body with generally limited clinical significance. Rarely they have been related to the onset of back pain, usually self-limited. Recently giant variants of SN have been described, with very discrete clinical and imaging expression. Knowledge of the typical imaging appearance in both CT-scan and MRI may preclude the use of unnecessary diagnostic and treatment procedures. The authors present a case of symptomatic giant SN resembling these rare variants by its size and persistent pain, but also featuring distinct classic SN characteristics. Although not usually needed when the image is typical, a percutaneous biopsy was performed which allowed both the definitive diagnosis and, surprisingly, the almost immediate and complete resolution of the symptoms. Five years later the patient is pain free and a new MRI showed a significant decrease of the lesion size and no edema of the vertebral body.